Lecture 11. Functional styles

1. General characteristics of functional styles.

2. The group of bookish styles:

2.1. The belletristic style.

2.2. The newspaper style.

2.3. The publicistic style.

2.4. The scientific style.

2.5. The style of official documents.

3. The group of colloquial styles:

3.1. The literary colloquial style.

3.2. The informal colloquial style.

3.3. The substandard speech style.

1. Functional Styles of the English Language.

“Functional style is a system of linguistic means peculiar of certain sphere of communication” (Ю.М.Скребнев). “Functional style of speech is a special social differentiation of speech, corresponding to a definite sphere of activity, having a special stylistic coloring, determined by the aims and a corresponding sphere of communication” (М.Н.Кожина).

According to I.R.Galperin: Functional style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. Each style, however, can be recognized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.

Functional styles are classified into bookish and colloquial. The group of bookish styles embraces the style of official documents, the style of scientific prose, the newspaper style, the publicistic style and the belletristic style. The croup of colloquial styles includes the literary colloquial style, the informal colloquial style and substandard speech style.

The speaker resorts to a certain functional style due to such extralingual factors: the character of the situation in which communication takes place (official, ceremonial, informal, private or other); the relations between the communicants (formal, official, friendly, hostile, spontaneous); the aim of communication (transference of specific information, emotional attitudes, establishment of business contacts, etc.); oral or written communication.

2.1. The belletristic style. This style attracts linguists most of all because the authors of books use the whole gamma of expressive means and stylistic devises while creating their images.

The belletristic style embraces prose, drama and poetry. The language of emotive prose is extremely diverse. Most of the books contain the authors' speech and the speech of protagonists. The authors' speech embodies all stylistic embellishments which the system of language tolerates. The speech of protagonists is just the reflection of people's natural communication which they carry out by means of the colloquial style.

The language of drama is also a stylization of the colloquial style when colloquial speech is not only an instrument for rendering information but an effective tool for the description of personages. The language of a play has the following peculiarities: 1) it is stylized (retains the modus of literary English); 2) it presents the variety of spoken language; 3) it has redundancy of information caused by necessity to amplify the utterance; 4) monologues are never interrupted; 5) characters’ utterances are much longer than in ordinary conversation.

The most distinctive feature of the language of poetry is its elevation. The imagery of poems and verses is profound, implicit and very touching. It is created by elevated words (highly literary, poetic, barbaric, obsolete or obsolescent), fresh and original tropes, inversions, repetitions and parallel constructions. The pragmatic effect of poetic works may be enhanced by perfected rhymes, metres, rhymes and stanzas.